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MLB Picks

MLB Picks: Friday Baseball Picks of the Day

We continue to ride the teams and pitchers with momentum and come up with another 2-0 day with the Yankees as a heavy underdog included. Here are our MLB picks of the day.

Today’s another day and we attempt to land the knockout punch in the upcoming
games with our baseball picks.

Friday the 13th could be a low scoring day as we
have a lot of aces starting for their respective teams. Let's review the MLB odds for a couple fine ones for today.

Philadelphia Phillies
(68-78) at Washington Nationals (77-69)

Is It Too Late?

The Nats are a team that’s red hot, but it might be too late
for them too make a playoff charge. They’ve won 6 games in a row as they
recently outclassed the Mets and are 5.5 games behind the Cincinnati Reds for
the final wild card spot with just 16 games to go in the regular season. The
Phillies, who have nothing to play for but the pride and spoiler role, have won
2 consecutive games.

If there’s any guy that Washington would want to take the
baseball tonight, it would be Stephen Strasburg . The numbers don’t tell the
story for this up and coming star whose career ERA is under 3 runs per game. A
combination of lack of run support and injuries have affected Strasburg’s win
total, but his stuff is just as good as Clayton Kershaw’s. Look for Strasburg
to come up big against a weak hitting Phillies team that ranks 28th
in runs scored and 21st in batting average.

Starting To Live Up
Potential

Washington is considered to have one of the lower ranking
offenses in the league, but their lineup has really started to pick it up. This
is a deep team with players like Span, Zimmerman, Werth, Harper, Desmond and
Ramos, who are really starting to hit well. Any player in this lineup can come
up big on any given day.

Yesterday, the Nationals beat up on the Mets 7-2 with 4
different players going deep.

Proving His “Worth”

Jayson Werth took the collar yesterday and although he looks
more like a Boston Red Sox with his thick beard, this former Philly meets his
old team and could be a factor in this game.
In his last 6 games, Werth is 11 for 26 with 5 runs, 6 doubles, 2 HR and
5 RBI. His .324 batting average on the season says it all; Werth is earning his
contract.

Washington is playing some passionate baseball lately and
look for them to beat up on Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick.

There are some other good matchups on the board with
pitchers like Kerhsaw and Wainwright starting, but I’ve been riding the Yankee
bandwagon and I’m not about to stop now. New York is just 1 game behind Tampa
Bay by for the final wild card spot in the American League after taking 3 out
of 4 games from the disappointing Baltimore Orioles.

Last weekend, the bearded Red Sox crew put a beating on New
York at Yankee Stadium, taking 3 out of 4 games and putting up big numbers
while hitting monstrous home runs. Jonny Gomes, Mike Napoli, and Will
Middlebrooks all wish that they could play the Yankees every game of the season
as they seem to prosper off of the Bombers; they got their wish for at least
this series.

New York needs to win every game that they can, but against
a pitcher like John Lackey (9-12, 3.48), the opportunity is there to serve
Boston back to back losses. Lackey rarely receives run support as his record
and ERA indicates. Surprisingly, in his last outing, he allowed 7 runs and 8
hits in 5 2/3 innings to the Yanks and it was still good enough to pick up the
victory. Don’t expect that to happen again.

New York starter Hiroki Kuroda has been falling apart the 2nd
half of the baseball season, but had a good accounting of himself in his last
outing against Boston which was a no-decision.

Grandy Is Back

Except for Derek Jeter and Mark Teixiera, New York finally
has some of its original starters on the field and they have been invaluable to
the team. Curtis Granderson is one of those
players and Granderson hit well at Camden Yards as he hit home runs in last 2
games. New York will need his offense along with production from the duo of Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano.

Even though he’s pitched well this season, John Lackey is
the weak link in this game. He can get flustered easily. Look for the Yankees,
with the momentum, to pull off the upset.